Greens want big businesses to pay local surcharge – Daily Business

Barclays’ Glasgow campus would pay more in rates

The Scottish Greens will fund local schools and care services with a new “banker tax” on £1 million+ business properties such as the giant Barclays and JP Morgan campuses in Glasgow and the Standard Life building in Edinburgh.

A local surcharge would be added to these sites through the business rates system.

The party says it will ensurie that the communities where these large corporations are based get to benefit from the vast profits they are generating.

Business groups will be dismayed by plans for more taxes and say such proposals will drive away investment.

The proposal follows the Greens’s plan to close the salary gap by imposing a 10:1 ratio on companies receiving government support so that the highest paid executive cannot earn more than 10 times the lowest earner.

If this policy was already in operation it would have meant Center Parcs could not have received £30m in funding from Hoyrood to support its Borders’ resort.

The Greens say big businesses can afford new taxes because of the scale of their earnings. They state that Barclays reported pre-tax profits of £9.1 billion, an increase of 13% on the previous year.

The charge is part of the Scottish Greens’ plans to ensure that the wealthiest people and businesses pay their fair share to support Scotland’s public services.

Party co-leader Ross Greer said: “These banks are raking in huge profits, but the communities surrounding them are suffering because of underfunded public services. It’s time for the biggest businesses to pay their fair share.

“Far too much of our economy has been given over to a banking sector which brings huge risks and has a long history of rewarding reckless behaviour and greed. It wasn’t long ago that tax payers had to stump up tens of billions of pounds to bail out irresponsible banks.

“The Scottish Greens have plans to put more staff into our schools and care services, and this is how we pay for it. While other parties are planning even more devastating cuts to public services, we will make the super-rich and big businesses pay their fair share instead,.

“A vote for the Scottish Greens on 7 May is a vote to ensure that the wealthiest people and companies are taxed properly and to demand better for ordinary people and families across our country.”

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